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3 days agoEven using just 8bit color depth you’d only be able to store a single 424x424 pixel image (uncompressed) on a “high density” 1.4MB floppy.
That’s absolutely garbage, but makes it all the more impressive that an upgrade from windows 95 to the first version of windows XP only took two floppy disks.
Edit: It seems I might be mistaken and the two-disk upgrade was more likely from 98 or 98SE not directly from 95.
I did it myself on a relative’s very old laptop a few years ago. I think it was specifically the 32bit Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) upgrade for Windows 95 (maybe 98?)
I just searched it up and was able to find an iso with only 129MB which is still impressive. But that’s a clean install and I think it’s for both x64 or 32. If I get more time to look into this later, (or if I can find the floppy disks themselves) I’ll try to find the original and send it to you if you want
Also you’re right, the fact it got images is pretty insane. Then again the only real “graphics” would be default icons, and possibly the green landscape but I wanna say that it didn’t even have that background image when I finished the upgrade; I think it was just a solid color. (The real crazy thing I remember was that the laptop had a color capable screen but had a purely black and white OS on it originally lol)
I think much of the kernel carried over. Also I can’t recall if I updated it to 98 before xp or not. That might’ve cut down on the needed install space.
Anyway you’ve gotten me curious, I kinda want to find that laptop now. Maybe I’ll use it to make authentic “Analog nowhere” style art with paint lol
Edit: This site seems to have the boot images for windows xp floppies and exe’s to create them. Looks like only 6 floppies are needed in total for all of Windows XP SP1